Laura Glesby Photo
Architect Joseph Sepot with renderings of his design.
The Hamden Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously Tuesday evening to approve a special permit to convert an office building at 20 Davis St. into the new site for Hamden Hall Country Day School’s elementary division.
The commission convened at a public hearing at the Memorial Town Hall to review the school’s application for a special permit. The Davis Street property was zoned T‑3.5. Architects working on the project presented floor plans, maps, and artistic renderings of their projected design for the building. They fielded questions from the Commission, which ultimately voted to issue the permit.
The building at 20 Davis.
Hamden Hall currently has 575 students in preschool through 12th grade, all of whom learn at the same campus at 1108 Whitney Ave.. As of now, the school isn’t planning to expand the size of its student body.
“I think it was more of a cost-benefit analysis,” architect Joseph Sepot said of the school’s decision to purchase the new building on Davis Street. It would have cost the school a similar amount of money to renovate its current elementary school building, he said. The Davis Street property sits across two roads from the school’s Whitney Avenue campus, making it a convenient addition.
Joseph Porto, a lawyer for the school, called the new location at 20 Davis “a hidden gem,” referring to it as a “castle-like property.”
The three-story Davis Street mansion is tucked away from the road, hidden from view by trees. Several footpaths currently lead up to the building from the road, although the school plans to close two of them for reasons pertaining to safety. The building sits just across from Eli Whitney park and overlooks part of Lake Whitney. It consists of about 148,000 square feet and comes with just under three and a half acres of land.
Hamden Hall said it has not yet closed on the property.
A path at Davis Street and Eli Road leading up to the building.
20 Davis was originally constructed in 1906 for Frederick Grave, whose grandson attended Hamden Hall, according to Porto. In recent years, the mansion served as an office building for architecture firm Roche-Dinkeloo. The firm decided to sell the property after its principal architect, Kevin Roche, died in March.
The view of Lake Whitney from the property.
The Davis Street location was ideal for the school, engineer Ryan McEvoy said, because it was close to the school’s main campus and “somewhat hidden from view.”
The building’s historic design couldn’t have hurt, either, Commissioner Michelle Mastropetre pointed out. “Kids will want to go to school in a castle, right?” she said.
Sepot said that the Davis Street building consisted of two parts: an original structure that was built in 1906, and a northern facade that was added on in the 1960s. He will preserve the 1906 component of the property, but plans to remodel the more recent part in glass so as to maximize sunlight. He said he hopes to construct “a bright, sunny classroom environment,” he said.
The school’s youngest students will occupy the ground floor, second and third-graders will learn on the second floor, and fourth and fifth-graders will take the top floor. In addition to classrooms, the building will contain areas for kids to “just hang out and socialize,” Sepot said. The new building will also contain a “multipurpose room,” which will function as a gymnasium for most of the day and convert into a cafeteria at lunch time.
Outside the building, the school plans to build two playing fields and a paved outdoor classroom in the building’s yard. Suzanne Schore, a landscape architect involved with the project, said her team would aim to preserve the area’s mature trees as much as possible when altering the outdoor area. Among other changes, she mentioned plans to install a four-foot chain link fence part-way around the perimeter of one of the playing fields in order to keep balls inside. The play areas will not be used for organized sports events — just for recreation. The school also plans to put up pole lamps to light the driveway and parking areas.
A traffic analyst for the project determined that the school’s location would not pose significant traffic issues. The school anticipates that a majority of parents will drop off their children at school, and plans for only one school bus of elementary students. The school bus will drop students off at Hamden Hall’s main campus at 1108 Whitney, and then students will take a shuttle between the main campus and the elementary school.
Hamden Hall’s current location at 1108 Whitney Ave.
Some commissioners expressed concern over the potential for families to walk between the school’s main campus and the Davis Street building. The walk involves first crossing Whitney Avenue and then jaywalking at Eli Road, where there is no crosswalk.
“I don’t want children walking across Whitney Avenue,” Commissioner Robert Roscow said. “It’s a very confusing intersection.”
Commissioner Paul Begemann said he is uneasy at the prospect of adults crossing that intersection, more so than children. He asked how the school would handle special events that students, teachers, and families would all attend, noting that parents might be tempted to cross the streets by foot.
McEvoy responded that the school does not anticipate much parental traffic. But when it came time to vote on the special permit, commissioners made it a condition of their approval that the school provide a shuttle bus to take teachers and families between the school’s two locations during special events.
Construction will likely begin in about a year, according to Head of School Bob Izzo.
Suzanne Schore presents on the landscape of the new property.